Life could change in an instant

In October of 2006 The Daily Evergreen published a story about a WSU student who had contracted meningococcal meningitis. The disease was contracted after the student had spent the night partying at a fraternity on campus, said his roommate Daniel Mistak.
Mistak said he returned home from a weekend trip to find his roommate vomiting all over the house. "I thought he had the flu and I couldn't afford to catch it from him so I stayed the night at my friend's house and told our other roommate to check on him every few hours," Mistak said. "I called [our roommate] that night and he hadn't checked on him in six hours. When he went down to check he said 'we have to get him to the hospital right now.'"
Mistak said when he got to the house his roommate had bloodshot veins all up his legs and could not speak.
In the follow-up story published by The Daily Evergreen it was reported that the student was in "satisfactory condition" and would be discharged soon. However The Daily Evergreen painted an overly rosy picture as Mistak said his roommate was forced to drop his enrollment at Washington State University as he lost all vision and was at risk for leg amputation. Mistak said his roommate is back at home in Spokane and will not be attending school for the spring semester, but he has recently been able to see blurred shadows of movement within his field of vision.